George Eliot's Adam Bede (1859): chps 21-35

"And so Adam went to bed comforted, having woven for himself an ingenious web of probabilities--the surest screen a wise man can place between himself and the truth" (347).

Points of Reflection

1. is Bartle Massey's peculiar and unexplained brand of misogyny (chps 21, 23) amusing or discomfiting?

2. consider the manner in which Arthur Donnithorne and Adam Bede each look at and think about Hetty. Do the two men share a similar perspective concerning the young woman?

3. what further evidence do we find in today's reading that Eliot is, like Wordsworth and Shelley, driven by an ardent egalitarian, democratic impulse?

4. we spoke last class about moments where the narrator draws broad conclusions about human behavior and motivation. At what junctures does s/he do the same this time around, and do you agree with his/her conclusions?

5. we have noted Eliot's manifest concern with fidelity to experience, period, and psychology. Does she stretch the bounds of realism at all in this week's reading, perhaps by casting a decidedly rosy or pallid hue over any of her scenes? In other words, does she either romanticize or excoriate?

6. do various characters' moments of self-deception (e.g. Adam's on pp.346-47) ring true, and do these moments make the reader less or more inclined to identify with these characters?

7. does Eliot's blatant foreshadowing of Hetty's impending plight increase or decrease the tale's dramatic tension?

8. how does Eliot dance around the issue of Hetty's changed physical status without directly stating it? For example, trace the euphemistic language she uses to describe Arthur's own thoughts on the subject in chps 27-29.

9. are we made to agree with Adam's opinion (reiterated by Arthur himself on p.386) that marriage between Hetty and Arthur would "'ha' led to no happiness i' th' end'" (377)? Do this narrative and its very opionated narrator, that is, support this kind of conclusion implicitly?

10. on how many different levels is Mrs. Poyser challenging tradition in chp 32?

11. chp. 17 is not the only place in the story where the narrator pauses to directly address the reader and his/her likely reactions to characters and events. S/he does so repeatedly (bottom of p.368, top of p.406, etc.) Does this narratological practice succeed in involving you, the reader, more thoroughly in the story, or does it just interrupt the story's flow?

12. what tone does the narrator adopt in his/her reflection on "sensible men" the middle of p.406?

13. what attitude towards Christianity slowly arises from the narrator's commentary on human suffering (415)?

14. does Eliot finally succeed in making even Hetty--one whom the narrator calls "vain" every chance s/he gets--into a pitiable figure in chps 31 or 35?

15. Is it possible to pity Arthur, and does the narrator encourage us to do so?

"The Emigrant's Last Sight of Home" (1858)
Richard Redgrave

Paul Marchbanks
marchban@email.unc.edu